There has been considerable interest in recent years in developing high energy density batteries with lithium-containing anodes. In such cells, cathode active material reduction and oxidation electrochemical processes generally involve lithium ions. In particular, cathode active materials may electrochemically intercalate lithium ions and/or produce soluble and insoluble lithium compounds during the charge-discharge process. Rechargeable batteries with such metallic lithium electrodes generally exhibit limited cycle lifetimes. Accordingly, articles and methods for increasing the cycle lifetime and/or other improvements would be beneficial.